There are many ways for students studying the English language to improve their language skills. One of the best ways is simply by speaking as much English as possible. The activity of actually speaking English is much more similar to how a child learns to speak the English language natively. The ability to read and write English are both obviously important skills, although a child usually speaks English before learning how to read English. Since speaking a language is actually a more natural way for a human to learn, here are some recommended English speaking activities a student may appreciate and enjoy.
Speak Everything That Is Done
One fun way for an English language student to really benefit from and also enjoy is the practice of speaking everything that is done throughout the day. When waking up in the morning, a student can say aloud: “I am waking up!” When getting out of bed, a student can say: “I am getting out of bed.” When brushing their teeth, a student can say: “I am brushing my teeth.” Okay, maybe it’s better for one to be quiet while brushing one’s teeth. Hopefully the general idea of the fun practice is clear. Speak everything that is being done throughout the day, whenever possible. When walking on the sidewalk, a student can say aloud: “I am walking on the sidewalk.” When passing a tree, a student can say: “I am passing a tree.” If it is necessary for a student to look up a word in a dictionary to describe activity, then the student should do so. Looking up the right word to use for a situation is important for this practice. Using the right words again and again throughout the day is a good way to learn English vocabulary.
Story of the Day
A daily practice that can be highly useful for helping an English language student enhance their English ability is to maintain a daily journal. A written journal is a wonderful way to practice writing English and an audio journal is a great way to practice speaking English. One really good benefit of recording a daily audio journal is that it allows an English language student to actually listen to the English they are speaking. This enables a student to improve their English pronunciation skills. Another benefit is the motivation gained from a student hearing how their pronunciation improves from week to week, month to month, and year to year. Using a computer for recording a daily journal is fine and recording audio files on a computer makes it easy to keep an audio journal properly organized. The daily audio journal can be a basic story of the day in a similar way to the previous practice listed in this article. The audio journal is done near the end of the day though, so a student would say something like: “I woke up. I got out of bed. I brushed my teeth.” The student would continue by saying what happened next and basically tell a story of the day’s activities. This can be truly enjoyable in addition to being good English practice.
Hopefully these helpful ideas will make studying the English language more fun and enjoyable.